French Clowning Workshop: Welcome your Clown

Come learn to clown à la Française with Ugo Gasiglia, a classically and contemporary trained clown from France. Gasiglia has taught and performed from Paris to Marseille and is bringing Oberlin a style of clowning rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic. This intensive workshop is open to all.

The clown: a character sleeping in our deepest recesses? A child? A lunatic? A genius? A man? A woman? A human. Who is the clown?

In this workshop we will prepare the body to receive its clown, letting it emerge from us naturally, going and fetching it from just the places where it lies.

We will use different techniques—dance, song, automatic writing, breathing work and finally clowning exercises and play—to let live this powerful being that lives in each one of us.

For the workshop please bring:

Comfortable clothes you can move in

Between 5 and 10 old, ugly pieces of clothing that you don’t have much attachment to so that we can have a large choice of costumes

An openness and desire to “faire les cons”

The workshop involves two sessions, from 1-4pm and 7-9pm. Participants are encouraged to attend both sessions as the second session will continue the work begun in the first.